The North Dakota State Water Commission enacted the Available Storage Acreage Program (ASAP) in 1996. This program paid landowners to store water that would otherwise have contributed to the flooding around Devils Lake. The program ran from 1996-1999 and stored 8,000-22,000 acre-feet per year at a total cost of $3.5 million. In 2000, the ASAP evolved into the Extended Storage Acreage Program (ESAP), which involved extended (typically ten-year, rather than one-year) contracts. Under ESAP, the SWC signed contracts for eight sites in 2000, which covered 395 acres, and had an approximate storage volume of 800 acre-feet. Those contracts are scheduled to expire on December 31, 2009. In 2003, an additional ESAP contract was signed for 18 acres, with 35 acre-feet of storage. That contract will also run through December 31, 2009.
- ACREAGE
- The following is a summary of approximate acreage inundated and storage under the Available Storage Acreage Program (ASAP) from 1996 through 1999.
- Selected ESAP (Extended Storage Acreage Program) sites
- Wetland restoration, protection, and enhancement in the Devils Lake basin (546 kb)
- The most recent wetland storage study published about the Devils Lake basin (7 mb)
